Have You Hugged Your Asterisk Today?

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us. – Hebrews 12.1

            A human being can run 26.2 miles in two hours and twenty-five seconds, but only with an asterisk. At least so far.

            Last May, Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge turned in that blistering performance on a Formula One racetrack in Monza, Italy. His feat (and his feet) buried the existing world record by over two minutes. But there’s a catch: Kipchoge ran behind a rotating pack of six pacers who not only set the tempo but blocked the oncoming wind. Nike, who sponsored the time trial, explained that the unofficial conditions didn’t matter: If one athlete could conquer the two-mile marathon, even off the books, it would shatter psychological barriers and open the way for someone to do it under sanctioned conditions.

            I don’t know if anyone will ever run a marathon in less than 120 minutes. I do know that if someone does, that person won’t be me. But the asterisk intrigues me: That little five-fingered bandit of glory reminds everyone who encounters it that Kipchoge did not travel so far so fast without help.

            The pastor to the Hebrews makes a similar point. In the marathon slog of the Christian life, no one runs alone, thus victory comes with a caveat. Isaac Newton once wrote, “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” He stole the quote, which may go back as far as Bernard of Chatres in the twelfth century. At any rate, a stained glass window in the Chartres cathedral depicts the four Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, as ordinary-sized men sitting astride the necks of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel.

            It would be wise to pause on occasion and ponder our own asterisks. Cambridge scholar Malcolm Guite has dismissed Descart’s famous dictum, “I think, therefore I am,” in favor of the more humble, “We belong, therefore we are.” Pause a moment today to give thanks for those who ran ahead of you, who took the headwinds and set the pace. If you have outrun them, it is only because they have run ahead of you.

            And while we’re at it, let’s kneel to give thanks for Christ, our great Forerunner (Heb. 6.19-20), who pursued his world-saving pace from Bethlehem to Calvary to the tomb to Hell and all the way into the Holy of Holies and the very presence of God in Heaven. Remember: If you find your name inscribed in the Book of Life, it will be tagged with an asterisk written in the blood of the Lamb.